The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-05-18
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S 81 N
DAY SERMON
Subject: "What Books Shall We
Read? What Pictures
Look At?"


fifty thousand pieces of silver. Acts xix, 10
Paul had been stirring up Ephesus with
some lively sermons about the sins of that
place. Among the more important results
was the fact that the citizens brought out
their bad books, and in public place made q
bonfire of them. see the people coming out
with their arms full of Ephesian literature,
and tossing it into the flames. l hear an
economist standing by and saying: stop
this waste. Here are seven thousand hVe
hundred dollars worth Of books-do you
propofe to burn them all upa If you don't
want to read them yourselves, sell them, and
let somebody else read them" NO." said
the people, 's.if these books are not good for
us, they are not good for anybody else and
we shall stand and watch until the last leaf
has turned to ashes. They have done us a
world of harm, and they shall never do
others harm" Hear the flames crackle and
roar!
Well, my friends, one Of the wants of the
cities of this country is great bonfire OF bad
books and newspapers. We have enough fuel
TO make blaze 2U0 feet high. Many of the
publishing houses would do well to throw into
the blaze their entire stock of goods. Bring
forth the illSufferable trash, and put it into the
fire, and let it be known, in the presence OF
God, and angels, and men, that you are going
to rid your homes Of the overtopplng and un-
deriving curse of profigate literature.
The printing press is the mightieSt agency
on earth for good and for evil. The minister
of the Gospel, standing in a pulpit. has
responsible position; but l do not think it is
as RESPONSIBLE as the position of an editor or a
publisher. At what distant point Of time, at
what far out cycle of eternity, will cease the
influence of a HenryJ. Raymond, or Hor-
ace Greeley, or James Gordon Bennett, or
Watson Webb, or an Erastus Brooks. or
1og Toll tbo of
that our New York dailies now have a circu-
lation of about eight hundred and fifty thou
sand per day, and add to it the fact that three
of our weekly periodicals have an aggre-
gate circulation of about one million, and
then cipher, if V lean, how far up, and how
far down, and h. " far out, reach the influences
of the American printing press. Great God!
the Lord intends the printing press to be the
means for the worlds rescue and evangelical
tion, and think that the great last battle of
the world will not be fought with swords and
guns, but with types and preSseS-a purified
and gospel literature triumphing over, tramp
ling down and crushing out forever that
which is depraved. The only way to over
come unclean literature is by scattering
abroad that which is healthful. May God
speed the cylinders of an honest, intelligent,
aggressive, Christian printing press.
7 have to tell you this morning that the
greatest blessing that ever came to this nation
is that of an elevated literature, and the great
est scourge has been that OF unclean literature.
This last has its victims in all occupations and
departments. 1t has helped to fill insane aSy-
lums, and penitentiarieS, and alnshouses, and
dens of shame. The bodies Of this infection
lie in the hospitals ano in the graves, while
their souls are being tossed over into lost
eternity, an avalanche of horror and despair.
The London plague was nothing to it. That
counted its victims by thousands, but this
modern pest has already shovelled its millions
into the charnel-house of the morally dead.
The longest rail-train that ever ran over the
Erie or Hudson tracks was not long enough
or large enough to carry tho beastllness and
the putrefaction which have been gathered
up in bad books and newspapers of this land
in the last twenty years.
Now, it is amid such circumstances that
put, this morning, a question of overmaSter-
ing Importance to you and your families.
What books and newspapers shall we read!
You see I group them together A news
paper is only book in a Swifter and more
portable shape, and the same rules which will
apply to book reading will apply to news
paper reading. What shall we read? Shall
our minds be the receptacle Of everything
that an author has mind to write? Shall
there be no distinction between the tree Of
down and drink out of the trough which the
wickedness of men has filled with pollution
and shame! Shall We mire in iinpurity, and
chase fantastic will-o-the-wisps across the
swamps, when We might walk in the bloom
ing gardens Of God! o no! For the sake of
our present and everlasting welfare we must
make an intelligent and Christian choice.
Standing, as we do, chin deep in fictitious
literature, the first question that many OF the
IL fc. Ix,a
read novels!' I reply: There are novels
that are pure, good, Christian, elevating to
the heart and ennobling to the life But
have still further to say that l believe that
ninety-nine out of the one hundred novels in
this day are baleful and destructive to the
last degree A pure work of fiction is history
and poetry combined. 1t IS history OF
things around US, with the licences and the
assumed names Of poetry. The world can
to such fictitious writers as Hawthorne and
Mckenzie, and Landon and Hunt, and
Arthur and Marion Harland and others
whose names are familiar to all. The follies OF
high life were never better exposed than by
Miss Edgeworth. The memories Of the past
were never more faithfully embalmed Inan
In the writings of Walter Scott. Coopers
novels are BEAUTIFULLY redolent with the
breath Of the seaweed, and the air OF the
American forest. Charles Kingsley has
smitten the morbidity Of the world, and led
great many to appreciate the poetry OF sound
health, strong muscles, and fresh air. Thack-
cray did grand work in caricaturing the pre-
tenders to gentility and high blood. Dickens
has built his own monument in his books,
which are an everlasting plea for the poor,
and the anathema of injustice. Now, say,
books like these, read at right times, and read
in right proportion with other books, cannot
help but be ennobling and purifying; but
alas for the loathsome and impure literature
of novels, like freshet overhowing all the
banks Of decency and common sense! They are
Coming from some of the most celebrated pub
fishing houses of the country. They are coming
with recommendation Of some Of our religious
newspapers. They lie on your centre table
to curse your children, and blast with their
internal fires generations unborn You find
these books in the desk Of the school miss, in
the trunk of the young man, in the steamboat
cabin, on the table Of the hotel reception
room You see light in your If Ghlds +; DIS room Ssn
4.Wbat are Won readinen "A book" You
look at the book: it is bad book. "Where
did YOU get itF II borrowed it." Alas,
there are always those abroad who would
like to loan your son or daughter
bad book! Everywhere, everywherea an un-
clean literature. l charge upon it the destruc-
ton of ten thousand immortal souls, and l
bid YOU this morning wake up to the magni-
tude of the theme. shall take all the worlds
iiterature-good novels and bad, travels true
and false, histories faithful and incorrect
legends beautiful and monstrous, all tracts,
all chronicles, all epilogues, all family, city,
State and national ibraries-and pile them
up in a pyramid of literature, and then snall
bring to bear upon it some grand, glorious,
infallible, unmistakable Christian principles.
God help me to speak with reference to my